Jeanne Rosier Smith (NRA-2012) of Sudbury, Massachusetts, won the Prix de Pastel (top prize) in the International Association of Pastel Societies twentieth juried exhibition. This year, the show is being held in the city of Brea, California and runs through September 14th.

“The winning painting is one in a series of waves I’ve been working on for the past three years. They just got more interesting to me — the movement, power and light — the possibilities for abstraction and yet absolute realism. There’s something also about capturing an illusion of splash and foam with a completely dry medium that appeals to me.”

Michael Budden (NRA-1999) of Chesterfield, NJ won top prize in the national Laumeister Competition, sponsored by the Bennington Center for the Arts in Bennington, VT. Artists from around the country competed for a first prize of $4000.00. Nationally acclaimed artist / juror Scott Christensen from Idaho first narrowed the submissions down to 53 accepted works, after which he picked the top three prize winners and several honorable mentions.

“I knew about this competition because a friend of mine won it in the past and this is the first time I entered it. Low and behold, I won top prize. Amazing. I have been experimenting with this foggy evening theme of the Brooklyn Bridge and thought it might work for me. I have had both positive and not so positive response to the image from my artists friends but I stuck with my gut feeling that it is a viable image for me. I’m thrilled that the Bennington Center for the Arts is sponsoring this competition. They treat artists with the upmost care and professionalism and Im also happy Scott liked the image also.”

With the gallery renovation project postponed at the eleventh hour, there was an unexpected opportunity to hang a member exhibition in the main gallery and who better to come to the rescue than Robert Pillsbury and the SCNY Junior-Scholarship Division. From prospectus to receiving our younger members had a mere two weeks to prepare and prepare they did. Our troops rallied to produce yet another superb show. The Summer Junior/Scholarship exhibition remains on view through September 14th.

The annual Non-Members Painting & Sculpture Exhibition followed on the heels of the Photography & Graphics Exhibition also at Denise Bibro’s Gallery at 529 West 20th Street in Chelsea. The show continues through August 24th.